With the petroleum resources expected to be exhausting by year 2040, it is high time for vehicle manufacturers over the world to come out with some new and promising technology and alternative fuels. Here, the “Veggie Van” running on vegetable oil or biodiesel comes to our rescue.
Although it is made from vegetable oil, biodiesel is so much like petroleum diesel fuel that it functions like petroleum diesel and can be blended in any ratio with petroleum diesel fuel. Since biodiesel has relatively low emissions, it is an ideal fuel for use in sensitive environments and areas such as: marine areas, national parks and forests, and heavily polluted cities. Federal and state fleet vehicles and mining vehicles can also use biodiesel in their existing diesel engines. "The Veggie Van" fueled with used vegetable oil from fast food restaurants took America by storm, logging over 25,000 miles on biodiesel fuel and appearing on the Today Show, Dateline, and CNN during the summers of 1997 and 1998.
According to Dr. Kerr Walker, Senior Oilseeds Specialist at the Scottish Agricultural College, "biodiesel offers the... only opportunity for producing a renewable ecological transport fuel". Biodiesel can be made from any vegetable oil, including soya, sunflower, canola, and even used cooking oil from fast food restaurants. Not only automobiles but also plane, “The Veggie Plane” runs on biodiesel. Thus, efficient, cheaper, environment friendly vehicles like the veggie van’s, veggie buses, veggie planes, etc. will truly be the vehicles of the 21st century.
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